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The introduction of the government's feed-in tariff incentive scheme led to record numbers of small-scale renewable energy installations last year, according to new figures released by Ofgem this week.
The latest data confirms that 57MW of new capacity was installed between April and December last year, representing a sizeable increase on the 44MW installed from April to September and further demonstrating the continued success of the incentive scheme.
The scheme pays small-scale generators guaranteed tariffs worth up to 41.3 pence per kilowatt hour for solar for the energy they generate, as well as an additional export fee for any power they sell to the grid.
According to the figures published on Wednesday, the payments encouraged 42.5MW of photovoltaic capacity to be installed last year, more than 10 times the 2009 installation rate.
The swathe of additional panels more than doubled the UK's total solar capacity, which according to analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance stood at just 32MW at the start of 2010.
More than 10MW of small-scale wind and 4MW of hydro capacity were also registered to receive the tariffs by the end of December, the figures showed.
The tariff levels are set to be re-examined by government in 2013, although at the time of the spending review, the Department of Energy and Climate Change added that it may choose to look at the scheme earlier if uptake proved more popular than forecast.
The rapid rate of installation is likely to kick off speculation that the government could bring forward its review of the scheme; a move the industry has claimed would severely damage investor confidence in the sector.